Floor-covering.



0. s. BIRD & G. R. WYMAN. FLOOR COVERING. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 30, 1913.

51,131,95 Patented Mar.9,1915.

MAKM

exact description,

ion'rrnn STATES rel runner orirrcn CHARLES S. BIRD AND GEORGE E. WYMAN, OE EAST WALPOLE, MASSACHUSETTS; SAID WYMAN ASSIGNOR T0 SAID BIRD FLOOR-COVERING.

Specification of Letters ratent.

Patented Mar. Q, 1293115.

Application filed January 30, 1913. I Serial No. 745,185.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES S. Brno and GEORGE E. WYMAN, of East Walpole, in the county of Norfolk and State of Mas sachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Floor-Coverings, of which the following is a full, clear, and reference being had to the accompanylng drawings, forming thereof.

This invention relates to improvements in floor coverings and particularly to such floor coverings comprising .a base or body having a pattern printed thereon with cone paratively a thick color or paint.

One object of this invention is to 50 construct a fioor covering of this nature that the surface shall be more durable than heretofore.

Another object of this invention 1s to prevent the surface color striking into the base, whereby dull spots are formed or appear on the surface and also to prevent the action of constituents, of the said base, from attacking and discoloring said surface color.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description.

'i he invention consists in the floor covering hereinafter described and claimed.

vFigure 1, represents a plan view of a small piece of the improved floor covering, portions thereof being broken away to show, in some degree, various layers or constituents of the improved material in their related positions. Fig. 2, represents an enlarged sectional view taken on line 2-2 Fig. 1.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout.

Floor covering of this nature is comparable, to some extent, to oil cloth floor covering, s0 called, as both have wearing surfaces and backs printed in heavy color or coated with such color. Oil cloth has for its foundation a woven fabric to the faces of which the wearing color coatings are applied with the result that the threads of said fabric, and particularly the crossings of said threads, form projections against which the surface coatings are soon worn away leaving the threads exposed to view. Moreover such woven base or foundation is not elastic and its lack of elasticity facilitates the wearing away of itssurface coating under abrasion or attrition.

part

lln carrying our invention into practice our main object has been to provide a floor covering having a wearing surface of color, preferably applied by printing, and a body, foundation or base of elastic material adapted to resist the action of moisture. In carrymg out our invention in practice we find that certain other improvements are desirable which, it is thought, will be more readily understood from a brief description of the process of manufacturing this material.

We take a sheet or strip a ofpaper or felt, so called, which previously has been treated with a water proofing material, pref erably of an asphaltic nature so that said sheet or strip a practically is saturated with said material and the sheet or strip is rendered more elastic thereby. The surfaces of this sheet or strip a are preferably coated with asphaltic or other suitable coating material for the purpose among others of rendering them adhesive and we now apply sand to such surfaces particles of which sand adheres. as indicated at b and e or said sand may be incorporated or mixed with the coating material. .One or both of said sanded surfaces is now sealed by the application'thereto of a suitable fluid shellac or varnish, which we have attempted to illustrate at c, and by such sealing the water proofing material of the base or body a,

or constituents thereof is prevented from striking through and attacking the surface coating or color d. Ihe coating 01, which may be applied in one or more layers,usually has an ornamental pattern printed thereon, and the sealing of the sanded surface as 0 prevents the color material of said pattern from striking through to the elastic, to some extent absorbent, body a.

When the coating material having the particles of sand adhering thereto or mixed therewith is of a nature which will not affect' injuriously the outer ornamental sur face of the may be applied between said sand carrying coating and the body of the paper or felt a, and whensaid sand carrying coating is of a material which will prevent the asfloor covering the sealing coating phaltic material striking through to the or back f which we prefer to form by the application of material rendered fluid by heat and having wax or a wax like substance as one of its constituents whereby such coating 7 quickly hardens after its application.

It is to be noted that this new material or floor covering presents a smooth upper surface cl which is attractive in appearance and is not as readily worn away as if it were roughened by the incorporation of threads therein. rTlie slight irregularities of the grains of sand in layer 0 form protecting means for the material of said surface 0! locatedbetween said grains of sandso that after the color surface 03 is worn down to the high points of the grains of sand the larger areas of color between said grains retains practically all of the characteristics of the original surface with the additional advantage that the grains of sand afford greater resistance to abrasive wear than said original paint surface.

While We prefer to use the sanded coating e such coating may be omitted without thereby necessarily departing from the spirit of this invention.

Having thus described our invention we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

Floor covering of the nature described comprising a paper body or base treated with asphaltic material and having coatings of sand one of which has a sealing coating impervious to oil or asphalt, a wearing surface of paint applied to said sealing coating and a backing coating applied to the other of said sand coatings, substantially as described.

OHARLES S. BIRD. GEORGE R'l/VYMAN.

Witnesses:

MILLARD M. RINEs, Wanna M..PA1NE. 

